In 2021 the Conservatives lost control of the council, a control only possible with the deciding vote of the Conservative mayor. The Conservative Leader of the Council retained his position as did his Cabinet. It is anticipated the Tories will lose seats at the May 2022 elections and power will transfer to the opposition councillors - Liberal Democrat, Alliance, Labour and one Independent. The Conservatives have only themselves to blame having ousted Roy Bullock and replaced him with a dithering nonentity who promptly lost his seat to UKIP. On his departure he was replaced by a councillor who lived in East Sussex (although qualified to be a councillor), was certainly more dynamic, and managed to split his party before losing his seat. Since then there have been Leaders who to put it mildly have overseen drift and decline.
It remains to be determined if the current three opposition parties will be able to form a coherent controlling group. Prior to the May elections what are these parties going to do? Will they agree on electoral pacts as after all they will have to unite behind one set of policies post the elections? Will the parties stand on a policy platform agreed before the elections and placed in the public domain? Or will we see squalid secretive deals done after the elections thus making the electorates' choices irrelevant?
Opposition is easy, promises can be made, negative criticism aired, outlandish assertions made all of which will come back and bite. Will the new 'management' be up for the fight or will it succumb to in-fighting and thereby lose the trust of voters?
We may be amazed of course by the Tories pulling off electoral victory!
